April 2007
More on automating the customer experience
How do you feel when you call a company and have to press 1 for some information or press 2 for something else? What about when all you want to do is talk to someone live and when you hit 0, all you get is a message that says, "I'm sorry, you have pressed an invalid entry, please try again."
I know that the reason why auto-attendants were invented for business was to speed up the handling of calls and save money, but when do we consider ourselves to have taken it too far?
I was watching the Jetson's with my children the other day. I think that when we have an automated dresser and baby feeder, then we have certainly gone way too far, but I would imagine there is a point before that where we should try for a little more personal interaction.
People still like to talk to a live person on the phone. People don't care how much more efficient your business is because you are not talking to customers, they want their problems solved and they don't care what you have to do to solve their problems.
Bottom line: Make sure that you don't automate the customer experience.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Security for your data
Data security and device security are two different things... sometimes we treat them as the same thing.
When looking at document management... or any other content management for that matter, there are a few ways that we can keep our data secure.
For example. In a paper-based environment you might put your documents in a filing cabinet or on a shelf.
Your security is only as strong as the location you put them in. If you get too many documents to house, you might rent space at another facility and have them store the documents for you.
If the documents are at your location, your building security keeps them safe. If they are off site, how do you know they are safe? How can you trust that your vendor will keep them as secure as you hope?
Electronic data security has the same concerns. Bruce Schneier has an essay on Separating Data Ownership and Device Ownership. I think that whether or not you choose to have a paper-based or electronic based document management system, you should surely understand the difference between the two.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Content is King
But what content are you concerned about?
In your business you have a lot of content that you need to worry about. What content is really important?
Most people don't think of content as what needs to be managed. They think of documents or they think of data or information... not often do they think of both. All data that you have is content. There are all sorts of content that needs to be managed... how many of these content sources do you use in your business?
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
- Paper documents
- Electronic documents
- Blogs
- Threaded Discussions
- Websites
- Contacts
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Microsoft Office Resume Template
I get so many resumes that use the Office templates for their format.
DO NOT DO THIS!! A person will say they have great experience with Office then use a template. How does this show experience? Yes they can find a template, but can they design a document?
Today most large companies have software packages that will take a resume and automatically upload it into the company database. Many of these packages are not too good at reading templates. So your resume gets somewhat messed up as it transitions from your file to their database.
Your education becomes your references or something like that. You also end up wasting so much space!! You have volumes you could say about yourself in all of the those empty spaces. You have to be active using the space effectively. Every square centimeter of your resume has to be thought out. A template shows you are a bit lazy and this is not something an employer wants in an employee; unless you are applying to hang out with Paris Hilton.
She probably appreciates sponging, lazy, freeloaders. continue reading...
Resume Help For You
Lately I seem to be helping a bunch of friends fine tune their resumes. Here are a couple of general pointers for you.
First and most important, unless you are a teacher working on a college teaching career your resume is better on the shorter side. When a hiring manager looks at a stack of 80+ resumes the last thing they need is for someone to take up a three pages when one page will do. I regularly view over 100 resumes a week. The ones that stand out the most are the shortest. Keep it to a page. Probably the only person that is as interested in your list of 73 things you did at that job is you.
Emphasize the most important things. If you are going to include information about the dates you worked somewhere, make it small print or put it at the end of a listing. You really need to stop and ponder for each position you list the most important information you can relay to the reader. There are times someone will drone on for a half a page about their Accounting experience. NO NEED!!! Make three or four points then move on.
Jeff Bettinger is the Senior Vice-President of Human Capital and Investment at masterthebusiness.com and a Senior Recruiter for an International Construction Firm.
Jeff Bettinger is the Senior Vice-President of Human Capital and Investment at masterthebusiness.com and a Senior Recruiter for an International Construction Firm.
Why isn’t Windows more efficient
For years, Windows XP has had a nice little feature that if you don't have the driver for your device, you can select that it will search the internet for you. You simply click the button to search automatically and the Windows XP will go and search the internet for you.
The problem is, I have been working with Windows XP for four years now and not one single time has it worked.
I needed to get some images off a camera today and thought that I would try with Windows Vista. I plugged in the camera and the first time it crashed my computer. After I rebooted, I was prompted that Windows Vista didn't have the driver but it would look on the internet for me. After about a minute, Vista told me it couldn't find the driver (I noticed it was looking at Windows Update... of course they wouldn't have the driver). It then prompted me to have Vista find a solution... it couldn't do that either. So, I went to the Canon website... no Vista driver.
Ah, what a pain.
Finally (why I didn't select this option before) I opened my Mac. I plugged in my camera and turned it on... then, about 4 seconds later, I got this message (click to enlarge, if you need to):
Too bad when Microsoft copied Macintosh OS X's interface they didn't copy the functionality as well.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Too bad when Microsoft copied Macintosh OS X's interface they didn't copy the functionality as well.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Do you like to see print or feel print?
Why do we struggle with the idea of a paperless office?
I am not sure that I really know the answer to this.
In 1999 Watchtower had an interesting artcicle titled The Elusive Paperless Office. In it, they assert that "People don't just want information at their fingertips. They want it on their fingertips. They want to be able to touch, fold and dog-ear; to fax, copy and refer to; scribble in the margins or post proudly on the refrigerator door. And, above all, they want to print outquickly, flawlessly and in vibrant color."
Moreover, they say, "People are in love with paper. They want to feel it in their hands. we have seen people try to achieve the paperless office, but all the thousands of computers we see all have one thing in common: They're all hooked up to at least one printer."
Are they all really hooked up to at least one printer? Well, I am hooked up to a printer, but for all the documents I create and read (as much as 1,500 pages per month between the two) I only print about 15 pages a month. With the exeption of the books I read before I go to bed, the majority of my information is conveyed paperlessly (is that a word?).
Tell me your thoughts... why is the paperless office so elusive?
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
One bad apple.
I have a friend- we'll call him Jack- who was a powerseller on Ebay. Jack has made over 20,000 deals with over 95% positive feedback. Today I was contacted from a disgruntled customer in England. Why did Jack's customer contact me? I was listed on Jack's personal myspace page. The English customer was so mad he searched until he found Jack's myspace page, then contacted each of his friends to complain and ask us to intervene with Jack to satisfy the customer.
Jack's old profile is now gone from Ebay.
Why am I telling you this? Because we hear so much about creating a "buzz" with word of mouth marketing, we need to remember that word-of-mouth is a two edged sword- keep the customer's satisfied, or their outrage can cross oceans to complete strangers.
Jared Hawk is a professional trainer in office technology. He also maintains a blog on Microsoft Excel tips, tricks and more.
Jared Hawk is a professional trainer in office technology. He also maintains a blog on Microsoft Excel tips, tricks and more.
The five worst words in business
It never ceases to amaze me when I go to a fast food restaurant how frequently customer service seems to be a lost art.
I was at Subway the other day and I was standing in line... it was my turn. With a glazed look, the girl behind the counter said, "May I help who's next?" I was the only next person. There was no one else she would likely consider helping and she asks to help who's next and not how can she help me.
My wife and I went to a local Mexican restaruant, Costa Vida. She has commented so many times how much she likes the place and so I went with her. We stood in line and then I hear, "Hello, sir, how can I help you?"
It is so much more inviting to be addressed directly. It is the simple acts of customer service that can make the largest difference.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Biggest Vista Complaint
For those who know me, I am a big Apple Macintosh fan. I run both Windows and Mac OS X on my system at the same time (not dual boot... at the same time).
When I first saw saw the following ad from Apple, I thought it was a little far fetched... but then I installed Vista on another computer and found that I had to authorize everything that I did. I figured out how to turn it off, and now it just asks me 6 or 8 times per day to turn that "feature" back on.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher's Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.
